How Often Does Udemy Have Sales? *The Reality*

By Dylan Riley
Last Updated on

How Often Is There A Udemy Sale?

Udemy is one of the most leading e-learning platform. They have got courses covering pretty much everything, from finance to video editing, language to beauty. They offer good quality content at great prices for the students. However one might think that their prices seem too high on first look, but Udemy offers discounts many a times, you just have to grab that opportunity and buy your desiring course at a discounted price. And after reading this article you will know when to look up for discounts on Udemy and when does Udemy offers those discounts. But before digging out the answer let’s first know a little more about Udemy.

About Udemy

You might be wondering what it is exactly that the company, Udemy  do. The word Udemy is an amalgamation of these two words ‘you’ and ‘academy’. Udemy offers an extensive range of online courses, material as well as instructors suiting to the vast variety of learning needs of it’s users. Udemy offers courses in over sixty-five different languages. Udemy was founded by Eren Bali and Gagan Biyani in 2010, with a motto “The Academy of You” which later changed to “be able” in 2017. The company has more than 70,000 registered instructors teaching courses, and there had been more than 480 million course enrollment till May 2021. 

Is Udemy Always On Sale?

This is the question what most of you are probably looking for. The straight answer to this is Udemy always actively offers some sort of discount on it’s courses. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t offer any special discounts for special events throughout the year. 

The special events when Udemy offers great discounts:

  • New Year Sale 
  • Flash sale, held in January
  • Valentine’s Day sale held in February, couple discounts and buy 1 get 1 free offers.
  • Buy more, Save more, held in the month march, this sale is for those looking to bulk buy courses, availing the huge bulk discounts.
  • Own Your Education sale – held in April
  • Mother’s Day sale
  • Back to school sale(USA)- held in August
  • Black Friday Blowout sale – held in November
  • Cyber Monday sale –held in November
  • Christmas Season sale ‘Nikolaus’ – held in December

When Is The Next Udemy Sale?

“I am a new student at Udemy, should I wait for a sale to buy the courses of my preference?” This might be the main question that brought you to this article.

The answer is simple. No, you mustn’t wait for any of the above mentioned sale to begin your learning journey at Udemy, because Udemy offers a great deal of discounts to it’s new users. And oftentimes this discount is even better than the discounts offered during the special events sales. 

Even if you are a existing user you can also bring a sale to yourself, just by following these simple tricks:

  • Remove and clear your browser cookies
  • Use any private tab or incognito tab to check on the prices for new comers
  • Use a different computer
  • Use a different e-mail address

The basic retail price of courses at Udemy is way too much higher than the competition. But after availing a discount the prices may drop as low as one tenth of the actual retail value of the course. For example, a course the market retail rate of a particular course is $100, and the Udemy retail price is $120, but during sales or for new users this price may drop to as low as $9.99 or $10.99.

What Is Udemy Gaining Out Of It?

The above example might have you thinking about the profits of the company. One might think that a company continuously providing such huge discounts to it’s customer is not making any profit, and will soon have to wind up it’s business. But my friend you are wrong, let’s consider this, any other business sales the similar courses as Udemy but at a higher price. This would most likely attract only a few customers. And only those will sign up for the courses who can afford such big amounts. Udemy overcomes this limitation of the users and makes it’s courses available for everyone at a very low discounted price, which in turn increases the company’s customer base, and attracts a huge amount of potential customers. Hence the company end up making excellent profits.

As of May 2021, Udemy has more than forty million students, and over 1,55,000 courses, and around seventy thousand instructors. Udemy has a customer base worldwide in around 180 countries, and offers its courses in sixty-five different languages. 

What Kind Of Courses Go On Sale?

One might worry that the course of his/her preference may not be available on a discounted price during any sale. But that’s not the case here, as I mentioned earlier Udemy offers huge discounts to it’s new users on all of the available courses. Even if you are among the least lucky people you will definitely get some sort of sales discount on your desired course. There is no particular definition on what type of courses will be on sale, but anything you like to access will most probably be on sale. However during some special event sale like Black Friday Blackout sale, some of the courses will not be available on sale, because the course instructor has the choice to discontinue the availability of his/her course during the sale. This type of behavior is rare but it does happen a few times. 

Types Of Discount You Can Get From Udemy Sales:

Udemy offers a new user’s discount, when you access their website for the first time. They sometimes offer courses at prices as low as $10 to attract more and more new customers. While the usual price of those courses may be ten times of what they charged. During special events sale, like the Cyber Monday sale, Udemy offers up to 95 percent off on it’s courses. Although they don’t offer 95% discount on all the courses, there are discount percentage like 50 percent and even 70 percent on many courses and that is no doubt an extremely appealing price to the customers who have been waiting for sales. Udemy also keeps updated it’s existing users about special and customized offers via email. And sometimes these offers bring down the price as low as $9.99. Now you tell me, ain’t that attractive? 

The discounts offered may differ from occasion to occasion, like during Valentine’s day there is buy one get one free offer, during buy more, save more sale there are huge bulk discounts. And during the 3 day flash sale, every course is on offer and everything is on heavy discounts.

Udemy’s Marketing Masterstroke :

Udemy offers great discounts to it’s new users. They have this algorithm that pretty much everything is up for sale for their brand new users. For example, if you log in to Udemy website for the first time, they will show you offers and prices as low as $10, and such appealing prices will definitely compel serious users to buy the course. And once a user buy a course Udemy will slightly increase the prices of rest of its courses and approach the user regularly with more personalized offers and encourage them to invest in other courses. 

This means existing users have to pay a higher price than what a new user would pay? 

The answer is yes. Existing users don’t get as much discounts as new users, but as I stated earlier, even already signed up users can avail the new user’s discount just by simply using a private tab or an incognito tab, or a different computer all together. One think to keep in mind is that if you are already signed up with an email address, you have to use a different address to avail new user’s discount.

This marketing strategy is proving very efficient in yielding huge profits for the company. The low prices attracts a huge number of new customers and almost eliminates whatever competition. They would rather sell their courses at low prices multiple times than sell only to a few customers. And evidence has it, there had been more than 480 million course enrollments by 40 million students. Even if all of these users buy a course at $10 the company is making $400 million dollars. This is the marketing masterstroke that benefits both the company and the consumer. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

So I Must Not Wait For Special Event Sales?

The simple answer is no, you don’t have to wait for special event sale to buy a course at discounted price. Udemy continuously put their courses on discount for new users and we have already discussed how existing users can avail that discount by following some simple tricks. But this doesn’t mean that there won’t be as much discounts during special event sales. Udemy offers up to 95% discount during the January Flash Sale, and Black Friday Blackout sale. Courses during these sales are like ripened fruits, you just need to wait for the right season and pluck them to savor the sweet taste. There is a lot to learn and Udemy offers you the opportunity to learn at your own pace and that too at very low prices. Pay the minimal price and add to your skills and knowledge. As the mad Titan Thanos wisely said “a small price to pay for salvation”.